An Experiment in Psychology - those who know me, and nudity

I think when he came to collect the rent people would pat him on the head, give him a piece of candy and tell him to run along and play.

But - "no" is not good enough!

Okay so, you wouldn't start thinking of him the same way you think of me. Would there be any change at all in how you deal with him? Any self-censoring? Anything like that? Why or why not?

To me what av the person is wearing at the time matters, not what look they used before. So if someone I know go from male to female, dog to cat, kid to adult.. Doesn't really matter.

It was! Same with the Metropolis build.



Um, I wouldn't pass on cookies neither. Jes sayin'





What I'd suggest, Jig, is to explore what it is that bothers *you* about this. It's not gonna sound good, but you are comin' off here as very reactionary, very "Eww Eww Eww!" without really understanding why such a thing bothers you personally. For one, take, "You are cool - but you are a kid. It's just too too bad." and replace the word kid with, well, a lot of other things (things like "human," or "tall" or "brown-haired," whatever, not so much things like "axe murderer."

I understand there's a "mental bridge" there. Did you know that when I first came to SL, I also did't know how I felt about people playing kids, and was a little creeped out by the whole thing?

An maybe the answer, for you, simply is "meh, don't like 'em." That's fine too. But in the above quotes it sounds like it's a real, scary, disturbing thing for you, based on some bad history or something -- I dunno.

Anyway...

A few weeks ago, when I made the foolish mistake of hanging around a bit too long as the opening of a certain continent (not to mention the unwise decision to not leave after being god 'ported in the first place), I got blasted in three different SL forums, as well as being the 'fresh meat of the week' in a certain blog. I was accused of all sorts of things, from naming my avatar after a girl who was abducted a year after I opened my account to going there in some attempt to take over an adult continent for who knows what.

One thing I learned in all that, however, is that it really would not matter if I put on a "grown up" avatar, or a dragon, or a cube, or whatever -- people see my name and think kid -- leaving me with the same limitations that one associates with my usual avatar choice. Not sure how that fits into all this, but it is curious to me.

It took me a couple of readings to understand what the original question was, which I take as this:

Suppose a child av happens on mature activity and then switches to an adult avatar, how will people react?

I think it would be a bit difficult to change gears. It would be easier if you changed a lot, so that people never knew which "you" they were going to meet.

We've never met, but I have seen you in Forum Cartel group chat, and if I didn't know you wear a child av, I would NEVER have guessed. I suppose you're glad to hear that.

Now THAT'S actually a pretty darned good idea!

Seriously!

Well, this is probably my issue really. To treat him differently, I WOULD essentially have to RP. And I am just not very good at that.

So, no, I wouldn't behave differently at all.

I should note, by way of additional context, that I have a good friend in-world who plays a 6 year old, but slips very easily and often in and out of character: I am used to dealing with her, and almost never treat her as a kid, because it is all too evident that she isn't REALLY playing one.

Yeah, me too. I used to give child avs a WIDE berth, but now I am one.

I have in the past made dramatic shifts in my SL experience to accommodate new interests in SL. When i went Gorean in 04, that meant for the most part detaching from some friends and making new ones. Now i am doing something different, something very roleplayish and it will involve a temporary change to my avatar eventually and i will probably not go around people who are not associated with that particular circle of RP for a while.

Most people will fail to see you as your "new self". For some, you will always be who they first knew you as. After all, "What is learned first is learned best".

About the RP stuff, can't speak for others, but I never expect people to RP around me. If they wanna blame me for the mud on the floor, give me cookies, or yell for me to git off their lawn then that is fine of course.

Well, I sorta think of Des as a very wise and precocious kid anyway. So it might not be that big of an emotional leap for me, after the first few minutes of strangeness.

To answer your original question, though...I'm not too disturbed by a kid av in a room full of naked adults (as long as we aren't talking Orgy Time here). I'd be more disturbed by seeing you transform into an adult av. Big, jarring perspective shift there.

Curious question: Does wearing any other sort of avvie scream the same thing to you, or is it exclusive to kid avvies?

For me, it is a lot like word association. You say a word, and I mentally associate that word with other words or thoughts based on my experiences. Even though I know you to be an adult in RL, I only know you by the way you present yourself in SL. Further, I have only ever seen you as a kid, so that is how I associate and identify you. Though you "aging up" would not be as extreme a change as someone changing genders before my eyes, there is still that period of time where how I identify you and how I currently see you are in conflict, and I have to adjust what I know to match what I see. The first time you do something like that, it's going to take me a while; the second and subsequent times, it won't take me as long.

I do wonder though if it would be easier for all concerned, if you (or anyone else who find occasion to age-shift more than once or twice) maintained separate adult and child avatars. From a practical standpoint, this would make a lot of sense, as the matter of having separate sets of clothes, gestures, and the like in inventory is easier when separated by avatar; but from a social standpoint, I honestly don't know if this would make life easier or produce a hardship.

Certainly makes for good discussion.

It's a good question Mari. and one I've asked myself. Although I don't have a good answer for you.

I'm going to have to say that overall, I am more likely to think RP when meeting a child AV in almost any context, whereas context is a little more important for me to recognize RP with other avs..say non-humans, furries, tinies, and such, and context is critical for me to RP with adult avs...such as being in a dedicated RP sim.

I think it is probably because child avs are still "human", but also obviously different from their typist, or more to the point the level of difference between avatar and typist is greater, but not so great as to completely sever the connection. So I think RP.

Whereas meeting a dragon, or robot, I'm more likely to think "cool AV!"

But again...that is first impressions. After a while it is more apparent whether the person is RPing or not.

For people I know...frequency of changing AVs would also affect my initial take on a new one.

Sometimes I get that with dog and cat avatars. Not always. Maybe it depends on whether they talk?

I had a kid avatar once, but last I looked for it I had lost it.

I used it to go skating around Caledon sometimes, back in the days when I had more free time, and the RFL track and such on steampunk skates. Though I have to confess it's not anything I really got into. I'm way more often found as a rabbit with my usual spectacles and waistcoat, when not my standard self. And sometimes I have cat ears.

Anyone ever seen MMO characters in forum signatures drawn as chibi? Especially big warriors and stuff? Totally common, *nothing* sexual about it at all. It's just to be cute and take the 'serious' edge off of running around with big hulking warriors killing trolls and goblins all day.

I'm *all for* separating kid avatars from XXX material and vice versa. But sheesh folks, running around trying to entrap pervs is a *bit* crazy, mmm? Sounds like a great way to find the FBI.

* * * * *

Hey, if I wanted to entrap people into 'vore,' what would work better: a ham sandwich avatar or a pie slice avatar? Purely Hypothetical Question!

Des

Nods. Whatever Crazod happens to be at the moment, s/he (I really don't know or care) is Crazod.
.

Personally I see avatars as just fantasy and I know there are real adults behind them and treat them as such. I do rp a bit with them,giving cookies,mussing up hair feeding doggie treats etc... But as a whole,they are just a normal adults like me.(Im guessing) and that's about as far as my thinking goes really. *shrug*

Crazod is a he.

You should know better than to bring up pie!

You really have made me smile. Which reminds me of a friend (desperately funny man) who thought he would take a long trip to "de sunny isles". Anyway he set off from Fort Lauderdale in his bro's fishing boat and instead of "turning right" as he put it, he turned left, caught the Gulf Stream and was whisked halfway up the Eastern Seaboard wondering why he wasnt catching sight of 'de islands, gurl"

Flying is fun. Worth every penny to learn. San Salvador Island has a brilliant runway.

Seriously, stay off the Stream "overnight" - hard to navigate and easy to miscalculate the current "rip".

Oh are you kidding? I'm landlocked. It will be a long, long time before I'll ever be able to make another trip like that.

That's cool.

I also had a friend who was on a jet-ski and was so carried away by teh joyof his new toy, he really WAS carried away. It took him HOURS to catch sight of land again and a whole lot of panic. Which kinda is rough justice coz jet-skis are vile machines that should be banned.

I remember hearing once about somebody who tried to sail from Miami to Bimini using a restaurant placemat, which featured a map of the Bahamas on the back.

People are just....weird, sometimes!